Ricky Tomlinson Movies and Career Information

Eric Tomlinson (born 26 September 1939), known by his stage name Ricky Tomlinson, is an English actor and comedian. Tomlinson was born Eric Tomlinson in Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, but has lived in Liverpool for most of his life. Tomlinson was born in Bispham because his mother, Peggy, was evacuated there due to the Liverpool Blitz in World War II. In 1962 he married his first wife Marlene, and they went on to have three children. A trained and qualified plasterer by trade, he worked on various building sites for many years, becoming actively involved in trade union politics. In 1972, he joined the flying pickets in a building workers' dispute in Shrewsbury. He was sentenced to six years in prison, of which he served two, after being found guilty of 'conspiracy to intimidate' as one of the so-called Shrewsbury Two, and in 1975 he disrupted the TUC conference by shouting from the wings after he had been prevented from speaking from the stage. It was revealed in 2002 that MI5 had monitored him during the 1970s. In his 2003 autobiography, he admitted that between 1968 and 1972, prior to his involvement with trade union politics, he was a member of the National Front, which he now